How It Is To Feel Like Ice...

First of all, A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BLOG! It turned one on 5th! I wanted to blog on that day celebrating it's first b'day, but couldn't since I finally went on a holiday. No, not with friends, but with family. It was some experience that I had. My dad had casually planned to take us on a trip to Bangalore to visit my aunt and cousins, since I had been everlastingly pestering him about how badly I wanted a break. Considering that, he decided to take us to Mysore and Ooty too. We reached Bangalore on 2nd May, and stayed at my aunt's place. I shopped my heart out that evening in commercial street. Next morning we left for Mysore in a tourist bus that we had booked for ourselves. We reached there by mid-noon, and boy was Mysore hot! I was sweating like a pig. Nevertheless, it was a real green place to see. You can hardly see any empty, barren grounds there. Every place is literally a garden. In the evening we checked out the Mysore Maharaja Palace. It was one of the most sexiest palaces I had ever laid my eyeballs on. It was shimmering in the evening sky, decorated with golden lights everywhere. It was like a magical piece of art that stood in the thin air. But tragically, we were not allowed to go inside, due to security problems.

We left for Ooty the next morning. The vehicle we were traveling in had to drive through forests of Nadamalli in Karnataka and another forest whose name I don't remember, in Tamil Nadu. We were told that we might come across wild animals like elephants and tigers. My eyes were wide open rummaging around the place, but in vain. I couldn't spot a single wild animal. I saw a deer though, which isn't what I would call wild. Then the vehicle drove through mountains, climbing and turning around sharp hairpin bends. It was like sitting on a roller coaster that moves in slow motion. We could sense Ooty from a distance as it had started to get chilly. Nobody had carried woollen clothing along except me. But it didn't look that bad anyway.

Ooty was beautiful. Everything about it was so green and pleasant and cold. I had some of the yummiest chocolates there. We went boating, and horse riding after which our bus parked at a location from where we had to walk to the famous botanical gardens. My parents, brother and I started to walk. Thats when it started to rain. At first it seemed like a temporary drizzle since it was common on top of a hill, but later it started to rain heavily and then it started to hail! There were only medium sized pieces of ice every where. People were running for shelter, and so were we. We found a place to protect ourselves from getting anymore drenched at a vendor's shop who sold items that he imported from Tibet. We were frozen. To add spice to the situation, we were in our cotton clothes, and had nothing to cover ourselves with. I was shivering, and laughing and expirating fog out of my mouth. I just couldn't help it. It was fun! I was giggling like an idiot despite of my dad's chagrin who hates any form of rain. My skin felt prickly all the while. A few pieces of ice even fell on my hands and feet which made me shiver even more. We waited there for a while and then decided to walk to the bus. It was so cold that I could not sense anything on my skin anymore.

We had to cross a street full of rain water and mud. It was like walking in ice water. Or maybe ice water would have been warmer. The moment I stepped on it, my foot became numb. After walking a few steps, I felt like frozen, hard ice. My fingers turned blue and my toes were aching because of the cold. I still had to walk many more steps to cross the lane. After every step I told myself, " a few more, and then you will be warm." After what seemed like ages, we reached a shop where my dad asked for some towels that could help us dry ourselves up for the time being. We had to adjust with handkerchiefs anyway, since they had no towels for sale. We started our way to the bus again, but this time, my brother and I ran. Just for the heck of it. Cold air hit me like a blow, with hail from above and our feet were so torpid that they were almost dormant. But we ran. I felt frozen and fragile, as if I would break open any moment. It was like the whole place was like a refrigerator with the chilled room leaking from the above. I never remember feeling so cold in my life. I have never felt snow or never been to many hill stations that have snow peaked mountains. But I doubt I'll feel this cold again.